Zootopia

Haters gonna hate, winners gonna win.

So glad this happened! Rich and Byron deserve every award they get.

Kind of a shame Zootopia utterly muffled Moana though; that one was also really good.

Yeah, Moana didn't even win Best Original Song because of La La Land.

Zootopia, as I said before, was not only more ambitious of a story than Moana but it was topical. So I had a feeling it would steal the award.

I'd say Moana was topical too - it was all about representation for an extremely underrepresented demographic after all.

Zootopia was really the only animated movie that didn't get snubbed this year: even Kubo and Moana, the two other critical hits of 2016, got beat out of all of their categories by other stuff, and Zootopia beat both of them out for Best Animated Feature.

Yeah, but Zootopia has applicability for any number of divided ethnicities.

Zootopia won because it was topical, and for no other reason. If the year wasn't so...contentious, it would have been nominated but not won.

I like the film but it should not have won over Kubo.

edited 26th Feb '17 9:34:34 PM by Beatman1

Kubo was very pretty, but its story wasn't great, fairly predictable, and a bit morally questionable.

"NO" other reason? Yeah. Because individually rendering each individual hair in every character's fur is no artistic achievement at all, either, sure.

edited 26th Feb '17 10:01:46 PM by TheGreatUnknown

I guess it depends on what you think the Best Animated category should represent. Personally I thought Kubo had better animation but Zootopia had better writing, and IMO writing is more important.

If this were any other category of film we'd say "Of course the actual story, themes, and writing matter most" but apparently because "animated" is in the title some people think only the actual animation matters.

Zootopia couldn't have been told at all without animation.

Zootopia's animation was good but it was the writing that truly earned it that win. Not just the message either: the complex conflict(s), the stellar characterization, and the attention to detail were all very apparent as well.

I think you're underrating the importance of visual storytelling. It's not like a movie's animation/visuals are ever just divorced from its story or themes— sometimes it's the script that makes a movie great, sure, but just as often it's the actors who elevate the material, or else it's really about the staging and cinematography of the environment reflecting the characters' inner lives. In an animated film, bear in mind that the animation *is* the acting, that the characters and the world they live in are all constructed from the ground up.

All that being said, I think Zootopia is very smartly written and has some pretty wonderfully realized characters anyway. Along with coming out at exactly the right moment, which shouldn't be discounted either.

edited 27th Feb '17 11:37:15 AM by Unsung

Honestly, I wish this film was nominated at least for Best Screenplay, due to how tightly written it was.

Still though, I'm definitely happy it won the Oscar. It more than deserved it.

Has an animated film ever won Best Screenplay before?

Personally, I would have accepted a Moana win, but not Kubo. I really liked Moana, and I'm not much of a musical person so that's saying something. Kubo's story fell flat for me and the animation, while technically impressive, just doesn't look as smooth or fluid as CGI, so there's just no reason for it to win out over either of Disney's movies this year.

Keep in mind, this is coming from someone who absolutely loved Coraline and Paranorman, so I'm not biased against Laika. I'm glad there is still a studio who makes those kinds of movies, for a change of pace if nothing else. Kubo just wasn't their best offering.

edited 27th Feb '17 8:43:42 AM by MilesDryden

Yeah, Kubo was good, but it did have some narrative issues and, despite its stop motion being very well done, it's just not as good as the Disney offerings this year.

An animated film has not only not won for either Best Screenplay award, when it comes to Best Adapted Screenplay only arguably three (Toy Story 3 and Hugo, and arguably Mary Poppins) were even nominated (if you're wondering why Toy Story 3 was nominated under Adapted and not Original, it's because they apparently consider a sequel "adapted" under ASCAP rules). As for Best Original Screenplay, it's been only Pixar movies getting a nod (Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, and Inside Out), but none of them have won it (though given how often animated films are adaptations, it's probably no surprise that Pixar films are the only ones even that have had a shot at BOS).

edited 27th Feb '17 7:30:01 AM by 32_Footsteps

Zootopia was more direct.

Moana was a more traditional Fairy Tale princess musical and focused more on a girl doing what she believes is right, rather than saying "see this?? This is happening in cities now. This is a real issue! Police! Racism! Protests!"

edited 27th Feb '17 8:30:27 AM by kyun

Uh, are you sure you meant Hugo there? Because it isn't animated. It's really really good, but it's a live action movie.

edited 27th Feb '17 7:40:47 AM by Zendervai

@3347 I guess the only scenes I had seen of it were very heavy on the CG, so I admittedly assumed that it was a CG animated film. I stand corrected on Hugo, but the main point remains - very few animated films get nominated for their screenplay, and none have won. In fact, in what may surprise nobody, even live-action films aimed towards a younger crowd have a very hard time getting a nomination (Babe and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial are the only others, though you can get a small handful by including wide-audeince releases that younger viewers can see, like Big and Back To The Future).

Zootopia definitely deserved to win over Kubo and especially Moana. Kubo's story was building up to be something that was revolutionary and spectacular, but it falls apart in the third act, and the ending is....... problematic and unsatisfying at best. Zootopia was just a lot better executed and clever with it's message, dialogue, and story. All three of the films are great, and 2016 was one of the stronger animated films. I understand some of the frustrations though.

Hey, I forgot I made this and I don't have anywhere else to put it, so, uh, enjoy?